Running head: UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE: ETHICAL AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS
Universal Healthcare: Analyzing the Ethical and Legal Foundations of the Policy
Name of student
Institutional Affiliation
Date of submission
1
UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE: ETHICAL AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS
2
Universal Healthcare: Analyzing the Ethical and Legal Foundations of the Policy
Introduction
According to the World Health Organization report, good health is a fundamental right to all the
people for ensuring that there is a sustained socio-economic development as well as significant
reduction in the global poverty levels (Carrin, 2007). It is therefore important to explore the ethical
and legal foundations of this policy implementation and explicate the pros and cons of these
perspectives in an effort to make universal access to healthcare services more reasoning and
beneficial to all. These are discussed under the following distinct subheadings.
Part 1: Ethical Analysis of the Policy
Ensuring equal access to healthcare services by all the citizens is surrounded by serious ethical
concerns. Based on the utilitarian ethical perspective, it is imperative to examine if the decision or
taking the action to implement the policy will bring maximum goodness to the greatest proportion
of the population. Already, there are issues of discrimination of the lower income segment of the
society (Burns, Dooley, & Armstrong, 2014). The policy protagonists argue that the universal
health coverage program will limit access of the uninsured and the underinsured who cannot afford
to pay the universal healthcare coverage taxes imposed by the government. This implies that all
the people will not have equal access to the healthcare services yet it is a legal requirement
enshrined under the Bill of Rights as a fundamental human right.
Another important ethical concern resulting from the universal healthcare policy is the
determination of how the policy helps to fulfill the duties, obligations, and responsibilities between
the governments and the citizens. It is the duty of the government to ensure equal access to
healthcare services by all its citizens without any form of alienation (Cox, 2010). This, therefore,
brings the question of whether the taxes imposed by the government for universal healthcare
coverage takes into consideration these issues. Under any circumstance nevertheless, it can be
argued that universal healthcare is both good and bad based on an ethical analysis. It is good in the
sense that it reduces the overall cost of healthcare and ensures all citizens access it. It is also bad
in the sense that it does not bring equity in the access to healthcare services especially with
reference to the uninsured and the underinsured.
UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE: ETHICAL AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS
3
Part 2: Legal Analysis of the Policy
One imperative legal issue associated with the introduction and implementation of the universal
healthcare policy is the issue of privatization. It is evident that universal health care coverage is a
multi-trillion dollar industry which draws the interest of many players from both the public and
the private sectors. The privatization affects the costs of accessing healthcare to lower income
individuals due to inflated costs of services (Tsimtsiou, 2017). This limits access to fundamental
rights of the citizens such as accessing basic and high-quality healthcare products and services.
From a critical and in-depth perspective, this is quite costly to the normal citizens and the entire
rollout of the program become compromised since it only benefits a selected class of the society
which is against the law of providing equal access of healthcare services to all people. This is,
however, good and bad from different perspectives. It is good in the sense that it expands the
economy especially the healthcare industry through the revenues generated during privatization.
It is bad in the sense that it ignores the legal obligations of the government in ensuring that all
citizens get equal and desirable access to the healthcare services irrespective of one's social class
in the society.
Part 3: Recommendations
Based on the analysis above, it is evident that universal healthcare as a policy in the healthcare
industry is affected by various ethical and legal considerations. It is therefore imperative to find
suitable strategies that would make the program meaningful and useful to all. This can be achieved
by involving stakeholder collaboration during policy review and decision-making. This includes
stakeholders from both the public and private sectors ("5. Responsibility- Sensitive Universal
Health Care," n.d). It is also important for the government to look into the plight of the lower
income class of individuals who cannot afford the insurance costs and find how they can be
incorporated into the program. This will create a better platform for understanding and allstakeholders involvement as desired.
UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE: ETHICAL AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS
References
5. Responsibility- Sensitive Universal Health Care. (n.d.). Health, Luck, and Justice.
Burns, R., Dooley, B., & Armstrong, J. (2014). Towards Universal Health Care- A Review
of the Basic Basket of Care Associated With Universal Health Care Delivery Models.
Value in Health, 17(7), A417-A418.
Carrin, G. (2007). Designing health financing policy towards universal coverage. Bulletin of
the World Health Organization, 85(09), 652-652.
Cox, T. (2010). Legal and Ethical Implications of Health Care Provider Insurance Risk
Assumption. JONA's Healthcare Law, Ethics, and Regulation, 12(4), 106-116.
Tsimtsiou, Z. (2017). Primary health care and universal health coverage: Achieving health
for all. Health and Primary Care, 1(1).
4
Running head: ATLANTA CITY DEMOGRAPHICS
Atlanta City Demographics
Name
Institution
1
2
ATLANTA CITY DEMOGRAPHICS
SECTION 1: Data Collection
Demographic related data
Indicators
Data for
Atlanta
416,474
Data for
Data source
US
328,953,020 Informplease (2018). Demographic
Statistics
for Atlanta, Georgia. Retrieved from:
https://www.infoplease.com/us/georgia/
demographic-statistics-2
Population
under the
age of 5
26,666
(6.4
percent).
19,175,798
(6.8
percent).
Population
over the age
of 65
40535
(9.4
percent).
51, 055, 052
(15 percent)
Population
of male and
female
Ethnic
backgrounds
416,474
328,953,020
6
6
Overall
population
of area of
focus
Sampling
notes
The
population
of Atlanta
is a fraction
of the entire
US
population.
6.4 percent
of Atlanta
population
is under 5
years
compared
to 6.8
percent in
US.
US nation
has more
senior
population
(15
percent)
compared
to Atlanta
City (9.4
percent).
Both
Atlanta
City and
US have
3
ATLANTA CITY DEMOGRAPHICS
Percentage
of nonnative
speaking
population/
households
99.8%
Education
levels
89.9%
high
school
graduate
or higher
Income
levels
$53,843
median
household
income
About 70.6
percent of
the
population
87.3% high
school
graduate or
higher
$57,652
median
income
household
Informplease (2018). Demographic
Statistics for Atlanta, Georgia.
Retrieved from:
https://www.infoplease.com/us/georgia/
demographic-statistics-2
the same
number of
race and
ethnic
groups such
as Whites,
AfricanAmericans,
Asians,
Natives.
Atlanta has
a higher
percentage
of nonnative
population
than the
entire US
population.
Atlanta has
a relatively
higher
proportion
of
population
with high
school
graduate
education
and higher.
Atlanta
City has a
lower
median
household
income
($53,843)
than the
nation’s
4
ATLANTA CITY DEMOGRAPHICS
median
income of
$57 652.
Health Related Data
Indicators
Life
expectancy
mortality
Infant
mortality
Data for
Atlanta
77.4
Data
Data source
for US
80
Frey, W. H. (2018). Diversity
years
explosion: How new racial
demographics are remaking
America. Brookings Institution
Press.
7.8 (by
2015)
5.8
(by
2015)
Sampling notes
The data shows that expectancy
mortality is higher in US than in
Atlanta. Health condition in the
whole of US makes it more
likely for people to live long
lives than in Atlanta.
Infant mortality rate is higher in
Atlanta than in the US. This
means there are more deaths of
infants below the age of ne year
in Atlanta than the overall
mortality on US nation.
SECTION 2: Proposal Outline
Comparison of Atlanta with US
United States has a diverse population of different ethnic and racial groups, which can be
found in Atlanta City. These groups include Whites (non-Hispanics), Hispanics (not including
black and Asian Hispanics, Asians (including Hispanic Asians), Mixed (non-Hispanics mixed
race), Native Indians and Other groups. Unites States has a higher population of minor under 5
years (6.8 percent) compared with Atlanta City that has 6.4 percent of its population under 5
years. In addition, 15 percent of US in the entire country are aged over 65 years, compared to
Atlanta that has 9.4 percent of senior population.
ATLANTA CITY DEMOGRAPHICS
5
In terms of education achievement, Atlanta city has a relatively higher proportion of
population with a high school or graduate education (89.9 %) compared to United States (87.3
percent) nationwide statistics. However, the same cannot be said about income levels. Atlanta
falls below the US median income household ($57 652) which is currently at $53 843. Life
expectancy is lower (at 77.4%) than in the rest of the nation (at 80 years). Additionally, the data
shows that infant mortality in Atlanta city is lower (at 7.8) compared to infant mortality across
the nation (5.8). These findings suggest that health conditions are more favorable in the across
the nation than in Atlanta city. Atlanta city faces health challenges typical in the United States.
The top ten most prevalent diseases appear to be spread across Atlanta and US: Heart diseases,
cancer, chronic respiratory complications, Alzheimer disease, diabetes, stroke, pneumonia and
chronic respiratory. Septicemia is more common in Atlanta city than in the in US.
Cancer Prevalence in Atlanta
This research will focus on cancer in Atlanta City and across United States because it is
one of the most prevalent diseases and major health concern not only in US, but also all over the
world. Cancer is the second leading cause of death and according to the Center for Disease
Control and prevention (2018), Cancer will be the leading cause of death in United States by
2020 and it is projected the number of cancer cases will increase to nearly 2 million incidences
per year. Cancer is an important health issue because more than 1.5 million people are diagnosed
with cancer and over 500 00 die because of the disease. Despite the high prevalence, more than
half of cancer-caused deaths can be prevented by ensuring healthy lifestyle, sufficient sleep,
proper nutrition and physical exercises.
ATLANTA CITY DEMOGRAPHICS
6
Atlanta City Population
Atlanta is the most populous city in Georgia and the nation’s 39th most populous city.
Atlanta metropolitan area is the ninth largest with 5.6 million people while the urban population
has 4.5 million people. The city has been experiencing a significant demographic increase in its
white population while the black population has been decreasing partly because of influx of
white population from neighborhoods like Old Fourth Ward and movement of Blacks in nearby
suburbs. African-Americans are the largest racial group who are concentrated in Northwest,
Southwest and southeast Atlanta. The city has one of the highest populations of LGBT per capita
ranking behind San Francisco and Seattle: 12.8 percent of the entire population is recognized as
gay, bisexual or lesbian. Hispanics are the fastest growing group.
Objectives
1. To describe the demography of Atlanta City and compare it with United States
2. To discuss current demographic trends, issues and concerns in Atlanta city.
3. To explore the spread of cancer in Atlanta and its impacts on the city
Activities
Activities for Objective 1
1. Conducting research by exploring literature and other sources that talk about the
demography of Atlanta city.
2. Reading online sources and print media for information related to Atlanta city.
Activities for Objective 2
ATLANTA CITY DEMOGRAPHICS
7
1. Visiting the city of Atlanta.
2. Conducting research by exploring literature and other sources that talk about the
demography of Atlanta city.
Activities for Objective 3
1. Visiting institutions and bodies concerned with provision of quality healthcare and
prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
2. Conducting Interviews with healthcare professionals and cancer patients in Atlanta city to
understand the prevalence, causes and prevention measures of cancer.
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ATLANTA CITY DEMOGRAPHICS
References
Center for disease control (2018). Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/ nchs/pressroom/states/
georgia/georgia.htm
Frey, W. H. (2018). Diversity explosion: How new racial demographics are remaking America.
Brookings Institution Press.
Hannah Nichols (2017). The top 10 leading causes of death in the United States. Retrieved from:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/282929.php
Informplease (2018). Demographic Statistics for Atlanta, Georgia. Retrieved from:
https://www.infoplease.com/us/georgia/demographic-statistics-2
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